Thousands of us voted. Now, we know your favorite Fiona mural design.

Fiona became the world's hippo when she was born six weeks premature at the Cincinnati Zoo. Today she's over 600 lbs., thriving and entertaining her many fans.
Liz Dufour

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With the warmer weather, Fiona, our favorite hippo, will be out much more for the public to view. The temperature needs to be above 60 degrees. Fiona now weighs 749 lbs. She resides in Hippo Cove with her mom, Bibi, who weighs 3,200 lbs.(Photo: Liz Dufour/The Enquirer)Buy Photo

As a child in Fort Thomas, Lucie Rice won her first art award for a drawing inspired by a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo.

On Friday, the professional illustrator and designer learned she won her latest accolade with a zoo-inspired piece.

Rice's design earned the most votes in the in the Fiona Mural Contest powered by MEMI – Music & Entertainment Management Inc.

ArtWorks and Fiona's home, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, will produce Rice's mural this summer to honor the premature Nile hippopotamus that beat the odds to survive and thrive.

More than 60 artists submitted designs to ArtWorks for the contest. A panel of judges selected five for a community vote.

More than 21,000 votes were cast in that poll on Cincinnati.com.

The piece will appear at 910 Race St. Organizers expect it to be painted by July 25.

"Every time I come home to visit my folks, I am awed by the mural work that ArtWorks has facilitated throughout the city," Rice said.

And she's been a longtime Fiona fan.

Lucie Rice.(Photo: Provided)

Rice actually created an illustration of the social media star before she knew of the Fiona mural contest.

"It just seemed like the stars had aligned when presented with the opportunity to create something, for a city that I love, that celebrates this amazing creature and her uplifting story," said Rice, who now lives in Nashville.

Simply put, Fiona makes people happy and hopeful, she said. And Rice hopes that her mural concept brings some of that joy to the people who see it.

Her design celebrates, of course, Fiona's "cuteness," but she hopes that it also captures her favorite thing about the Fiona phenomenon.

That "has been to see how the community (and world), has united in watching this animal grow and prosper," she said.

The contest may be over, but the public participation doesn't end there.

You can buy tickets to help paint the Fiona mural, too. It's part of a fundraiser called Paint by Numbers.